Environmental Health Specialist 1 or 2-RS

Environmental Health Specialist 1 or 2-RS Food & Pools Program

Our Role: Want to do meaningful work that has a real impact in our community? Come join our team-oriented, family-friendly organization of over one hundred talented public health professionals!

The Position: Under the direction of the Food and Pools Program Manager, the incumbent performs environmental health services mandated under federal, state, and/or local regulations governing food safety and water recreation. The specific functions of this position are to promote and protect the health, safety, and well-being of the public and to prevent injuries and the spread of disease. By conducting regulatory inspections and education, the incumbent directly mitigates critical risks, as failure to perform these essential tasks could lead to an increase in foodborne illnesses, waterborne diseases, and recreational injuries. The incumbent will be assigned to work a varying and flexible 40-hour workweek schedule, which includes evenings, weekends, and holidays in rotation as required.

Hours: 40 hours per week – 100% FTE, requires occasional evening and weekend hours.

Status: Regular - Permanent full-time position.

Benefits: The District offers a comprehensive health benefit plan which includes medical, dental, vision, and life coverages, including several voluntary plans through The Standard, MetLife and Aflac. The District provides medical and dental coverage, contributing percentages of the average medical and dental insurance premium cost for full time employees as follows: Employee @ 100%, Employee & Spouse @ 90%, Employee & Child(ren) @ 90%, and Full Family @ 85%. Benefits include generous paid time off, and twelve paid holidays per year. Employees participate in the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS), a defined benefit retirement plan managed by the Washington State Department of Retirement Systems and Social Security. Three deferred compensation plans are also offered. More information about employee benefits can be found on our website at kitsappublichealth.org/careers/benefits.

Please note:

• Applications will be reviewed upon receipt. Candidates may be invited to interview prior to the closing date.
• Interviews will be scheduled for June 22. Please plan accordingly.
• Proficiency in Spanish is preferred.
• After a successful initial trial service period of at least six months, a limited hybrid remote work arrangement may be established as mutually beneficial.

Essential Functions

Position-Specific Functions:

• Conducts routine and follow-up inspections at food service establishments in assigned area at set performance standards per month.
• Conducts temporary food service establishment inspections when required.
• Conducts interviews and investigations of foodborne illness complaints.
• Responds to general food service establishment complaints and makes inspections as necessary.
• Keeps current on food service and disease prevention issues, technology and regulations.
• Maintains database and file records.
• Conducts plan reviews and pre-operational inspections for new and remodeled food service establishments.
• Schedules and conducts office conferences and administrative hearings with food services establishment operators to provide and explain terms for continued operation.
• Develops educational materials.
• Conducts water recreation facility inspections in assigned areas and conducts follow-up inspections as needed.
• Conducts interviews and investigations of disease, injury, near drowning, and drowning.
• Assists with investigations of disease, injury, and general complaints.
• Responds to general water recreational facility complaints and makes inspections as necessary.
• Assists with standard calibration and maintenance service for program and field equipment and keeps maintenance logs.
• Provides technical assistance to and corresponds with the general public, other governmental agencies, and Health District staff on program related activities.
• Works with the program manager and colleagues to develop, encourage, and sustain a team-oriented work environment.
• Attends meetings with federal, state, and local agencies.

General Agency-Wide Functions:

• Accurately completes and submits electronic timecard on a weekly basis as required.
• Maintains accurate and organized records, databases, systems and files.
• Prioritizes and plans own work activities. Uses work time and resources effectively.
• Prepares a variety of letters, memos, forms, reports, and other documents; operates computers utilizing a variety of software programs, including database and word processing applications, to produce documents with clearly organized thoughts using proper sentence construction punctuation, and grammar.
• Responds to public health emergencies as required by the District.
• Participates in quality improvement efforts.
• Serves as a resource person for staff in their area of expertise.
• Demonstrates cultural humility and embeds health equity into all aspects of assigned work and associated interactions.
• Works both independently and within a collaborative team-oriented environment; contributes openly, disagrees respectfully, understands the ideas of others, listens well, and works for consensus.
• Models an organizational culture rooted in respect, transparency, and collaboration, utilizing data-informed management to drive continuous improvement.
• Establishes and maintains cooperative, effective working relationships with coworkers, partners, and the public using principles of good customer service.
• Reports for scheduled work with regular, reliable, and punctual attendance.
• Adheres to all District policies.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Work Environment & Physical Demands

• Work is performed both indoors in an office environment and in the field, inspecting food establishments.
• Requires the ability to communicate with others orally, face to face and by telephone. Requires manual and finger dexterity and hand-eye-arm coordination to write and to operate computers and a variety of general office equipment. Requires mobility to accomplish other desktop work, retrieve files, and to move to various District locations. Requires visual acuity to read computer screens, printed materials, and detailed information. Essential duties may involve occasional kneeling, squatting, crouching, stooping, crawling, standing, bending, climbing (to stack, store or retrieve supplies or various office equipment).
• While performing field work, the incumbent is regularly required to work outdoors in a variety of weather conditions and walk on rough, uneven or rocky surfaces. Required to use hand to eye coordination, handle, feel or operate objects, tools, or controls. The incumbent is frequently required to stand and/or walk for extended periods of time; walk on uneven surfaces; sit; climb or balance; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl; and smell in the performance of field and office duties. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus. Duties require the incumbent to carry supplies and/or equipment up and down stairs as well as into and out of a vehicle on a daily basis.
• Occasionally required to work a varying schedule in rotation which may include evenings and weekends.
• Duties require carrying a cell phone or other electronic device as well as being available to work as needed to meet District needs, which may include evenings, weekends and holidays.
• Off-site visits require the incumbent to carry supplies and/or equipment up and down stairs as well as into and out of a vehicle on a daily basis.
• The nature of the work also requires occasionally working in environments which may include exposure to toxic or hazardous gasses, chemicals, or bio-substances and wearing protective clothing or apparatus.
• Exposure to individuals from the public who are upset, angry, agitated and sometimes hostile, requiring the use of conflict management and coping skills.
• Frequently required to perform work in confidence and under pressure for deadlines, and to maintain professional composure and tact, patience and courtesy at all times.
• The environment is dynamic and constantly changing, resulting in continually re-evaluating and shifting priorities.

Education & Experience

Environmental Health Specialist 1:

• A bachelor's degree in a job-related field.

OR

Environmental Health Specialist 2-RS:

• Bachelor's degree in environmental health or environmental science, or a bachelor's degree in a related field with a minimum of 45 quarter hours (30 semester hours) in physics, chemistry, organic chemistry, biology, microbiology, epidemiology, biostatistics, and college-level algebra or higher mathematics; AND
• Two or